We were surprised by the wicket: Shakib

Sports Correspondent, from Chattagram

7 September, 2019 12:00 AM

Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan said on Friday that they are disappointed not to get their desired wicket against Afghanistan in their one-off Test match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattagram.

Bangladesh are struggling against Afghanistan in their maiden Test match as their finger-spinners failed to leave an impression against their opponent in the opening day of the Test and it looked Afghans looked to have picked the momentum from then onwards.

Bangladesh ended the second day on 194-8 and is now trailing by 148 runs, after Afghanistan was dismissed for 342 in first innings, their highest total in Test cricket.

Rashid contributed with batting, hitting his maiden Test fifty to push the side’s score closer to 350 that too against a four-man spin attack as they failed to extract anything from it while he tormented in the opponent batting with his wrist spin, picking 4-47 to help Afghanistan tighten the noose.

“Certainly we are disappointed as we could not get the wicket we wanted considering you are well aware how we wanted to go with our playing XI,” Shakib told reporters at the post-match press conference.

“We have finger spinners they have wrist spinners. That’s the only difference; I don’t see any other difference. (Mohammad) Nabi did and took two wickets but our finger spinners took all 10 wickets. Their wrist spinners were more effective and we don’t have wrist spinners and in such flat wickets, it gets difficult if we don’t have wrist spinners. And because we did not expect this wicket, the situation is difficult for us,” he said.

“We all are surprised. Because we did not expect anything like this, it’s totally opposite. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to do anything well. Sometimes things become different than what we expect. To become a good team you always have to know the answer when quizzed out of your box. So we will try to answer those questions. But obviously, we were out of our expectation,” Bangladesh captain said.

Shakib said that maybe they were unable to apply themselves against Afghanistan spinners and that was the major reason behind their downfall.

“Maybe we could not apply us properly. I won’t say it’s unplayable because the way Mosaddek (Hossain) and Taijul (Islam) batted, it’s possible to make runs here, they have proved it,” said Shakib.

“We could make more runs if we could apply more,” he said.

“Mominul was making runs the way he was batting. I won’t say, he should not have hit that ball, maybe he could execute it in a better way at least it could be four instead of a six, and it would be better in that way. And in Liton’s case, the balls were coming low in this wicket since the first day. So he should have made proper plans, maybe he could avoid playing cross-batted shots, because he was batting really well, the team was in better condition. If we could make a good partnership there, we would lose 4 or 5 wickets instead of eight,” he said.

Shakib added that they are still confident to win the game against Afghanistan.

“Definitely, it’s possible to win. The teams do come back in falling behind after the first innings, it has happened for many times before. We will also try doing that same. The two wickets that have left, if they can last more and carry us forward and if we can bowl better. It will definitely be difficult to chase on this wicket facing the spinners they have but we have that belief that it’s possible (to win),” Shakib concluded.